Uwe Schreeck, Finishing Department Manager and Werner Küppenbender, Technical Manager of Vereinigte Verlagsanstalten GmbH in Dusseldorf, with Joachim Weis, Sales Representative of Muller Martini Germany, at one of the two new PrimaPlus saddle stitching lines.

At its printing facility in Dusseldorf, Vereinigte Verlagsanstalten GmbH (VVA) employs a workforce of some 250 people. In a three-shift operation, complete printing solutions ranging in size from DIN A6 to A3 are produced. These include more than 100 periodicals (with a high percentage of titles published in-house) for customers at home and abroad. Production machinery includes everything from very up-to-date sheet-fed offset and web printing to high-performance saddle stitchers and various addressing lines that operate independently of one another, enabling the company to always produce on time and with the best possible quality.

"Sample production runs on the PrimaPlus convinced us"
For many years, VVA has put its trust in the proven high quality of Muller Martini equipment for manufacturing wire-stitched products. Up to now, two saddle stitchers have been in use, namely a model 335 and a Prima. Two new PrimaPlus saddle stitchers were put into operation in the middle of this year to expand existing capacity. After a stringent evaluation process, this model won through against tough competition. "The performance of the PrimaPlus demonstrated to us during sample production runs was clearly the feature that most convinced us," adds Werner Küppenbender, Technical Manager of VVA. "In addition, the good experiences we had had with our older saddle stitchers in terms of reliability and high availability also came out in favor of Muller Martini….and, as we recently experienced, Muller Martini machines also have a high residual value."

The new pair of PrimaPlus saddle stitching systems have six and eight feeders and cover feeders, as well as a fourth and fifth knife attachment and sample gluer. Both lines are equipped with Semko lateral thickness measurement units and Asir optical signature recognition. This means the highest levels of production reliability and productivity. "We can already see a clear improvement in results today," asserts Werner Küppenbender. "With comparable runs, we are20 to 50 percent faster than before."

Training is of the utmost importance
Board-member Thomas Röhrig is also extremely satisfied: "We are now producing 20 to 30 percent more than in the same period a year ago. This has enabled us to achieve our aim of substantially increasing productivity to avoid outworking." Thomas Röhrig is also satisfied that the PrimaPlus lines have delivered all the promises made by Muller Martini. "We are still not quite where we want to be," Röhrig admits, "but we are certainly well on the way!"

This is also because, from day one, VVA has placed great importance on the regular training of operating personnel. "Eight out of nine of our staff who work on the Prima lines have attended training courses at the Muller Martini Training Center in Switzerland," comments Uwe Schreeck, Finishing Department Manager. "The feedback from the training sessions was very positive. And this is underlined by the fact that our operating personnel performed excellently on the new saddle stitchers right from the first day." Two more employees will be sent to Switzerland for training courses shortly. VVA, they are convinced they can increase productivity even more due to this intensive training and the increasing experience of its personnel on the new machines.